


Mission Control

by Fabrisse



Series: Rebuilding the Table [15]
Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 03:27:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3634908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Galahad (Van) refuses a honey trap.  Merlin is sent to Italy instead with Galahad as his handler.  Eggsy is on assignment in Russia, and Roxy is on assignment in Laos and Burma.  </p><p>Galahad learns more about Merlin's job, more about Merlin and Eggsy's relationship, and more about worrying than he'd ever imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This will be three or four chapters. There's another story I'm working on in the series which will be inserted between Shock and this one when I get it done.

It was the very end of the weekly meeting. Several hotspots had arisen in the world and half the Kingsmen were on assignment. Beaumains would be going to Russia within the week; Lancelot had a meeting in Vietnam. Caradoc was monitoring issues in Brazil, and Sagramore was following a lead on a possible leak of nuclear materials in Punjab. Dinadan was in Egypt, and Tristan was in the middle of Indonesia’s political unrest.

The final assignment was a simple intelligence operation in Rome. A mark had information and seduction was the logical way to get it from him; only his one night stands were invited to his flat where he stored his most sensitive information. 

Galahad was assigned. “Why can’t Beaumains do it?” 

Arthur thanked the others at the table and reminded them of the next meeting time. Merlin nodded that communications were limited to those physically in the room.

Eggsy looked up from his tablet. “For one thing, I’m not a tall black man which is his preferred type.”

“But not his exclusive type,” Galahad said.

Arthur glanced down the table.

Merlin nodded. “I’m the back-up. I’ll do it.”

“Galahad your assignment will be made later this afternoon. Beaumains, I believe you have fittings for some heavier suits to accommodate the weather in Saint Petersburg. Lancelot…”

“I need to hit dressing room three and restock.”

Arthur said, “Thank you. If you’d stay, Merlin.”

“Of course. Beaumains, could you ask the tailors to make up a new dinner jacket for me?”

“‘Course, Merlin.”

The other three exited.

Arthur said, “I never had to do a honey trap. Not once, certainly not with a man.”

Merlin raised his eyebrows.

“Times have changed. For the better in my opinion, but that still leaves me with an agent at the table who is unwilling to take a particular type of assignment. I was never _given_ a honey trap, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have done one if asked.”

Merlin said, “You’ve been married since you’ve been at the table. Wherever possible, your predecessor gave honey traps to unmarried agents.”

“Understood.” Arthur leaned back in his chair. “I’m more worried about having Merlin in the field when we have so many major international issues.”

“The first thing I was going to request was that the Three Witches be responsible for 24 hour monitoring of comms.”

“The Lady makes sense because there will be logistical issues if any of these flare up, but Vivienne and Morgana?”

“If a person can be said to have three right hands, they’re mine. The Lady can’t take all of the shifts and, since I’m the one who plotted this mission, I know that I will be gone at least a week, possibly two. Besides, Vivienne will probably have come up with three new weapons and designed their microcircuitry by the time I get back. And having Morgana on direct analysis can only be to the good. They find their best insights when they’re covering comms.”

Arthur nodded. “All right. Have them send me their shift schedule for approval before you leave for Rome. It’s not my place, but... will this cause any issues in your private life?”

“Eggsy knew I was the backup if the mark didn’t take Galahad up on his offer. But I need you to make it clear to Galahad, that he’s now _my_ backup should I fail to attract our arms dealer.”

Arthur sighed. “Yes.”

“My mission is the least likely to blow up in an unexpected way, so I don’t want the Witches covering me. Galahad’s never run comms on an operation, not alone. By the time Lancelot and Beaumains had been at the table this long, I could trust either of them to run comms in my absence. And they’re even better when they work together.”

Arthur said, “I was about to say we were lucky to get Lancelot and Beaumains both to the table, but then I remembered the circumstances. What do we do if Galahad keeps refusing these types of assignments? I don’t think an agent has been asked to step down from the table since Burgess and MacLean embarrassed the Dinadan of the time.”

“He hasn’t refused any other honey trap -- just the homosexual one.”

Arthur said, “We can’t afford to have prejudice among us.”

“I’m not certain we do. He and Eggsy work well together. He’s never seemed uncomfortable around me. Not everyone is flexible.”

“Are you?” Arthur asked.

“One of my rare early forays into the field was to charm an older woman. I quite enjoyed the exercise.”

“All right. Galahad’s your lead on comms. The witches will cover the other assignments with whatever support you deem necessary. I need the full coverage roster by five o’clock tomorrow.”

Merlin stood to go. “Thank you, Arthur.”

***  
Eggsy grinned as Merlin came out of dressing room one. “That cut would make me look like a pillar box. It makes you look perfect.”

Merlin said, “Thank you. I wasn’t sure about double breasted.”

Roxy came down the stairs and whistled. “Be sure. You’re gorgeous in that.”

Merlin shook his head at her. “Thank you, Lancelot.”

She kissed each of them on the cheek on her way out. “Next stop, Vientiane.”

“I head to Saint Petersburg tomorrow,” Eggsy said.

“And I to Milan the following day.”

***  
Vivienne was sitting at Merlin’s desk when Van came on duty. “I can’t believe he has an evening meeting on the first day.”

“Good evening to you, too, Galahad.”

“My apologies. You’re Vivienne?”

“Yes. I’m on for another hour. Lady will take over then.”

He said, “I’m glad you’re first. She’s a little intimidating.”

“You must not have been here long. She’s _extremely_ intimidating.”

“Great.”

“And Merlin doesn’t have a meeting. He’s attending La Scala because his mark is.” She turned back to her screens.

Van put the headphones on and ran through a mic check with Merlin. 

When Lady came in, she glared at him and said, “How long have you been here?”

“About an hour.”

“After the three hour mark you’ll have random equations or simple games to solve at irregular intervals. If you don’t complete them in a reasonable time you’ll be sent home.”

“Why?”

She said, “Merlin’s orders. If we’re not alert, we can miss things. I’ll get them too once I’ve been on that long. Merlin gets them, for that matter.”

“Understood.”

Lady gave a tight nod and went back to her screens.

The rest of Van’s evening was taken up with watching Verdi’s _Falstaff_ through Merlin’s glasses feed and confirming the mark when Merlin passed him in the crush bar during an interval. Once the evening was over and Merlin was back in his hotel room, Van was off until the following day.

***  
The next afternoon, Vivienne came back on shift while Merlin was reading on the train from Milan to Venice.

“Hello,” she said.

“Thank God,” Van answered. 

“Yes?”

“Morgana didn’t say a word to me when I came on, although, to be fair, she was helping Caradoc with a problem at the time. And Lady...” He made a show of shivering. “I don’t know what I did to her, but this is not a happy woman.”

Vivienne checked all of her feeds and said, “You did it to all of us. Merlin’s gone. Each of us heads a department, but he coordinates it all. Without him, things become far more difficult, if only because we’re all slightly territorial about our own specialty.”

“But… the Table makes the decisions.”

She shook her head. “It’s nice that you think so. Worldwide close to seven hundred people work directly for Kingsman. How many of them do you manage? What are their roles?”

“I…”

Vivienne said, “That’s what I thought. Merlin’s responsible, ultimately, for five hundred twenty of them. My department’s about fifty, by the way, research and development. Another fifty are indirect reports who supervise the manufacturing and storage so that no one realizes we exist. Morgana’s department accounts for another eighty, but she also has many, many more who don’t work directly for Kingsman -- stringers, if you know the newspaper term.”

“Informants.”

“Close enough. And Lady handles logistics: three hundred forty people from the women who walk the agents’ dogs to the pilots and drivers of our planes and cars. The three of us report to Merlin, not Arthur. Morgana’s information has probably been the basis of every mission you and Sagramore have been on, Galahad.”

 

Merlin’s voice came through the headset. “Have you found out where Signor Lupo is going to be, Galahad?”

“Oh, yes. Another opera this evening, _Alceste_.”

“Good. I much prefer Gluck to Verdi. Did you run the faces of the others in his box last night?”

Van said, “The information is on your tablet.”

“Thank you. Grab something to eat and take a couple of hours off. I’ll need you to run faces again this evening -- faster, if you can.

“Of course, Merlin.”

“Don’t worry too much, Galahad, it gets easier the more you do it,” Merlin said.  
***  
It was two more nights and two more operas before Merlin made contact with Lupo. At the Rome Opera, Lupo approached him at the bar and asked him his opinion of this production of _Picque Dame_. They began discussing music and made a date for the following evening at a jazz club.

Over the previous evenings, Van had begun to get the identifications and other information to Merlin sooner, and Lady had thawed enough to talk to him. Once Merlin signed out for the night, Lady said, “You’re getting better at this.”

“I, um, thank you.” There was a long pause. “How often do agents have to do this? I mean, I know Daya -- Sagramore -- and I were asked to do it in training, though that was nothing like this.”

Lady looked at him, “Not often, but it happens, particularly at times when more than half the table are on more dangerous assignments, like now.”

“Thanks.” He started to get up, and then sat back down. “Are you busy at the moment?”

“I can keep an eye out if needed. Why?”

“I just thought you might know some history of this place. Like how many Arthurs or Merlins have there been. I don’t think I want to know how many Galahads.”

“Because I’m old?” She shrugged. “Fair enough, I suppose. I was hired in 1968 by a brand new Arthur. He’d known my father, brought in a lot of women who were being ignored over at MI-5 and 6. This one’s my third. Chester King took over in 1980? Yes, 1980. Merlins? This is my fifth. And, for what it’s worth, I’m the second Lady of the Lake he’s worked with.”

“Fifth?”

“The Merlin who was here when I started decided to concentrate on his acting career in seventy-one. He’d been with Kingsman since the war ended. Then we had one who blew himself up. If he’d been around much longer, one of the agents might have done it for him. He was a poor choice. The next one had worked here since the war as well. We knew he was an interim. And then the one before this Merlin. He wasn’t as good at the training and ultimately decided to retire. We were very surprised when a young, dishy man was brought in. Thought he’d be lucky to last twenty-seven days and it’s been twenty-seven years.”

“Was he good from the beginning?”

Lady looked at him hard. “Excellent. I could probably dig out his IQ tests from when he was a candidate for the table.”

“Why do I get the feeling it’s me he’d kill, not you?”

“Because you’re learning, lad. Head out and get some kip. See you tomorrow.”

***  
Roxy’s mission was beginning to be linked to Daya’s. And both of them thought it might lead to Eggsy’s mission. The Russian Mafia was a clearinghouse for a wide array of weapons going to most of the world’s hotspots. The problem was the supply chain. Each of them could get only so far before the trail disappeared. 

Roxy had secured nuclear material and sent it for proper disposal; Daya was getting wind of chemical weapons, some as basic as mustard gas, coming in from the border with Bangladesh.

She thought she had a lead on a storage unit in Dacca. Unfortunately, she was right. 

Lady touched Galahad’s shoulder. “Is Merlin doing anything important?”

“Sipping espresso and listening to some really weird jazz with Lupo.”

“Sagramore’s in a mess. I need you to help her keep hidden while I get my people to her to get her out of there.” She slid a panel over to his screen and did something to get him on Daya’s feed.

“Sagramore, Galahad here. Lady’s working on a way out, but you have to be alive to take it.”

Daya’s voice came over his glasses. “I’d prefer that myself.”

“Take your next left. If the door on the right is unlocked, bypass it. Otherwise, slip in there. We’re hacked into the security cams, but there aren’t many and that’s a position where I can see who you’ve got.”

She was able to get the door open with a card. “You’ve done me right, Galahad. It’s the office.”

“I’m sure it’s very exciting.”

He saw some men coming toward her corridor and set off a fire alarm behind them. They ran toward it.

Daya continued, “Van, my lad, criminal organizations need to keep books just like anyone else.” She picked up ledgers and opened the safe with a fuse made from some decorative threads on her collar. Inside were more ledgers, two gold bars, and about 100,000 in US dollars. She took the ledgers and the money, cursing that the bars would weigh her down too much.

Van had a note slipped to him. “Seven minutes, south exit.” He checked the cams again. “There’s about to be company in your corridor. Brace yourself for a potential firefight.”

“Got it.”

Someone tried the knob and then ran further along, toward the clangor, when it turned out to be locked. “Five more minutes,” Van said. “That will give you thirty seconds to get down the stairwell at the end of the hallway to your right. The bad news…”

“Because there has to be bad news.”

“The bad news is that there’s no way to keep you from being seen.”

“Got it.”

Through the feed Van watched her sling the bag with the ledgers and the money across her chest. She pulled the gun out of her back holster and held it loosely in her hand.

He said, “There will be a pink tuk-tuk coming by and someone on a motorcycle immediately behind it. You’re to get on behind the motorcycle driver. He’ll get you out quickly and then leave you the bike to get to the airport. A single engine plane is fueled and ready.”

“How much time?”

“Another two minutes.”

The silence stretched out. Finally, Van said, “When you come out, you’ll need to run to your right, but you’ve got at least two people who’re going to see you.”

“To my right?”

“No, left.” He counted down from ten and watched the feed as Daya burst out of the room at one. She took down the two at the intersection of the corridor and ran as quickly as she could toward the stairs.

“Is there a fire escape or a ladder?”

“No, Sagramore. Stairs are the only way.”

Lady said, “Have her go up and cross the roof to the northwest corner. I’ve rerouted her escape plan to meet her there in eighty seconds. There’s an exterior fire escape, but don’t ask me if it’s safe.”

He relayed the information to her and watched her run via her glasses. The pink tuk-tuk came by just as she reached the lowest point of the ladder, which was still at least nine feet from the ground. She jumped and rolled, nearly landing under a very loud, very fast Japanese motorcycle. She swung her leg over as the rider passed her a helmet. She put her arm around his waist and felt the power of the machine as he zoomed around. The tuk-tuk managed to snarl traffic in the immediate area for enough time to let them get well away.

Lady took her feed back. “Tristan’s little emergency is sorted.”

“Sagramore,” she said. “There is refueling stop at Gangaw. Lancelot will meet you in Rangoon at the Strand Hotel. You’ll get to Mandalay together day after tomorrow. I have people who will greet you with the proper call signs who’ll get those ledgers back here.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to go straight to Mandalay?”

“No back up there. You and Lancelot will be on your own, each other’s back up if you will.”

“Got it. Thank Galahad for me.”

“Will do.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're all doing their jobs.

The following evening was much busier. Analysis of Daya’s data had changed her plans with Roxy, and they were both on their way to Daya’s home base in Jaipur.

Eggsy thankful for the protocol instructions before the black tie party being held by Eggsy’s mark. Thanks to information he’d picked up during the formal trade negotiations, where his cover was the British Ambassador’s advisor on financial affairs, they could now confirm that Bogdan Volokov was the major distributor of illegal weapons throughout Europe. He was also supplying the Middle East down through Yemen. There seemed to be another distributor, perhaps related to Dinadan’s mission in Egypt, for North Africa.

He’d shared a box at the ballet with the Ambassador before returning to the Imperial Hotel for the party. He’d already taken a pill which was supposed to prevent him from becoming too intoxicated, but Eggsy had also taken Merlin’s advice once or twice about finding a handy plant.

***  
Merlin was at the opera again, this time as Sebastiano Lupo’s guest for one of Bellini’s works. He’d noted the way Lupo’s eyes had raked his body, and he was fairly certain the night was going to end in Lupo’s bed. He assessed Lupo’s weak spots under the cover of flirting. 

***  
Van was on comms listening to _Zaira_ while Merlin was sharing Lupo’s box. Through the glasses he could occasionally glimpse Lupo leaning forward to stare first at the action on the stage and then at Merlin.

By the time the opera had ended, and Van was thanking all his lucky stars that it was much shorter than the other operas he’d been attending with Merlin, Lupo had already asked Merlin back to his townhouse not far from the Piazza del Popolo. Van didn’t have much Italian, so he made certain the audio feed was going straight back to Morgana’s translation department for review the next day.

Lady tapped him on the shoulder. “Both Dinadan and Tristan are going to need intensive handling tonight. Can you take over Beaumains’ feed, too? He’s just at a party.”

“Certainly.” Van glanced at the screen. He set the ambient audio widely on Eggsy’s feed to catch stray conversations and made certain it, too, was heading directly to translation. Twice Eggsy asked for information about the person he was talking to. The second time he said, “That’s Volokov’s daughter, right?” about a young lady who was flirting heavily with him. 

“Yes, Daria. She’s seventeen.” Van thought he caught a movement that could be Eggsy wincing. He watched his charge extract himself from the conversation, just as Volokov came over. 

Volokov extracted his daughter and introduced Eggsy to his wife who began flirting as heavily as her daughter had been. Van heard her say that her husband would be passed out and Eggsy could find her in room 313 later, if he wanted.

Eggsy got away from her and found another young Russian woman flirting with him. Van ran the facial recognition, and said, “Keeps getting worse. This one’s Volokov’s mistress.”

There was a slight bob which Van thought was an acknowledgement. This time Eggsy didn’t extract himself quickly, but kept the conversation to the ballet and other neutral topics as the young lady tried to close the distance. After about twenty minutes, and Van was impressed that Eggsy had been able to keep the conversation going politely without ever letting her think he was trying to bed her, there was a slip of the hand and Eggsy managed to spill his drink on himself. 

He put the glass down on a passing waiter’s tray and headed for the men’s room. “Galahad, I need you to first wake up the Russian translator on call and send her the last twenty minutes of the conversation to my right while I was with Yulia. But I want it done as the last five minutes first, then the five before that, then… you understand?”

“On it.” He found the right person while Eggsy used the men’s room. As soon as he’d relayed the instructions, he said to Eggsy, “What’s second?”

“Patch me through to Merlin.”

“What a booty call?”

Lady snatched both feeds from him and made the patch. They heard Beaumains warning Merlin that, while his Russian was still pretty shit, he’d overheard the term ‘Italian Wolf’ as the major investor-cum-dealer in Volokov’s business. Merlin managed to say thank you while talking to Lupo and used a code word that meant it was all right to end the patch. She passed the feeds back to Van wordlessly. 

A few minutes later, Eggsy zoomed in on a woman in her early forties. “She wasn’t on my briefing list.” Van found her in the files quickly. “She’s the wife of one of Volokov’s rivals in the arms business. Rumor has it that she’s the one who really runs the show.”

“Perfect.”

For the next half hour or so, Van’s attention was split between two men seducing their marks. 

When Merlin and Lupo made it to Lupo’s bedroom, he had taken his glasses off, but they were on a table pointed toward the bed. 

Lady nodded at it. “You can minimize it, but the fact that he didn’t set to audio only or put his glasses in a pocket says that he’s not sure he’s safe.”

Van thanked her as he made the glasses feed a small corner in the upper right of his screen. Eggsy’s feed took a much wider part of the screen until it became clear that his seduction had worked, too. Like Merlin, the glasses were placed so that the bed could be seen. Van minimized it to the opposite corner and did his best to ignore the audio.

Lady put her feeds down. “They’re out of the woods, both of them.” She shook her head at Van. “Just when I think you’re finally starting to understand what you’re supposed to be doing… If one agent asks to be patched directly to another you do it.”

“I just thought…”

“No, you didn’t think. Those two have private means of communications when young Beaumains is out on a job. Since they’re both blacked out for fifteen minutes every day at the same time, it can be assumed it’s being kept up while they’re both out in the field.”

Van said, “They do? Isn’t that…?”

“No agent wears his glasses twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And Merlin gave the witches a private heads up so no one would panic the first time. None of that has anything to do with you potentially bollixing up a job because you wanted to make an immature joke.”

“Well, they’re in a relationship, he’d been flirting…”

Lady shook her head, “Beaumains was and is doing his job.” Her emphasis caused Van to look at the screens, seeing both men in the throes of passion with other people.

“Of course,” Van said quietly.

***  
The following day, Eggsy got his translated conversation both as a full sequential translation and in the segmentation he’d requested. He also relayed parts of his conversation with Irina Lubova from the night before for analysis with the other pieces that were being sent in from the other agents.

Merlin checked in when he got back to his hotel the next day. He’d planted a trojan on Lupo’s computer and several bugs in the house. His time in the field would be over soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After analysis, everyone's heading back toward London -- not that it's easy to get there.

By the time the analysis was complete from the four active missions, Vivienne was back on duty. She handed Van a note. He glanced at Merlin’s feed. He was lunching, at two in the afternoon, with Lupo in some trendy al fresco restaurant. He pressed a button that would make Merlin’s glasses tap his ear and watched as the man smoothly extricated himself to go to the men’s room. As soon as the signal bounced back to Van, he was on. Intelligence from Eggsy had been linked to Dinadan’s and Tristan’s shows, too. Dhi’bun in Egypt, Serigala in Indonesia, Volokov in Russia -- all these names meant wolf. Volokov had legally changed his name; the other two were nicknames. 

“But Sebastiano Lupo is this one’s real name. It’s probably a loyalty test for major subordinates,” Merlin said.

“That’s what Morgana’s department thinks. The techies are still working on his encryption, but whatever you can get to us will be useful. Get yourself out quickly, per the Lady.”

“Not without the information,” Merlin said. He put the visual back on, and ran into Lupo almost immediately.

There was some quick back and forth in Italian, and the next thing Van knew, Merlin was walking back to Lupo’s townhouse for an afternoon tryst.

Van turned to Vivienne. “I’m going to need an extrication for Merlin. I don’t know when yet, but…”

She nodded and handed him a binder opened to Italy before turning back to her screen. “Yes, Beaumains?”

“I’m blown. Not my cover, not entirely, but the Consul I’ve been working with on the finance side… his wife just mentioned spending a lovely vacation at Volokov’s dacha. Her husband knows I’m here investigating Volokov. Thinks I’m a low level numbers clerk, still, I’m pretty sure.”

“Got it.”

“It’s Vivienne, yeah?”

“It is, Beaumains.”

“I’m not going to risk going back to the hotel. Can you have someone clear out my room and get my things back to the shop? There’s no weapons or electronics in the room.”

She said, “Just a moment.” After a pause, she said, “Done.”

“Good, now get me a route out of here, preferably one that gets me out of Russian territory pretty immediately.”

“You need to find a space to hide.”

“Yeah, thought of that. Get me the Swedish Ambassador in London.”

“Will do. I’m also letting MI-6 know about the financial consul.”

“Well, if this as international as this morning’s analysis implied, they’re going to need to vet every employee in the distribution center states.”

Vivienne said, “I have the Swedish Ambassador on the line.”

She monitored the patch even though she didn’t speak any Swedish. When the Ambassador signed off, she said, “Beaumains?”

“I’ve been given asylum in the Swedish consulate. I’m heading in the back way, now. Get me that escape plan.”

She waited until he’d been pulled onto the grounds to say, “We have a route to Finland for you. It’s difficult in winter, but you have to avoid the airport and the trains.”

“Just get me the details before I need to leave. I’ve put one copy of the information into the diplomatic bag, in case I take too long to get home. Thanks Viv.”

“You’re welcome, Beaumains.”

She leaned back in her chair. “Lancelot’s in the air. Landing at Gatwick.”

Van said, “Good.”

“Can you cover the others for half an hour? I need to talk to Arthur. Morgana’s in the back, if things blow up.”

“Sure.”

***  
The Lady came back on in the early evening. She nodded at Van and checked in with all her agents. She took Beaumains last and gave him his instructions for getting out of the Swedish consulate and to a cruise ship traveling from Saint Petersburg to Stockholm. If he thought he’d been made, he was to return to the consulate and they’d attempt a private crossing late at night.

Van startled when he caught a glimpse of Eggsy in the mirror through his glasses. His eyes were a bright blue and he was wearing a patterned sweater in blue and gold on grey. He heard the Lady say, “Yes, you can pass for Swedish.”

There was movement on his screen as Merlin picked up and put his glasses back on. He moved stealthily from the bedroom to the private office directly off of it and began to pull off all the bugs he’d left on Lupo’s computer.

Merlin had also put in a stick drive which was copying and compressing all the information from Lupo’s peripherals. 

Van caught the glance up and saw a fully dressed Lupo come into the room. Merlin had moved so his back was on the wall beside the door. He smashed the gun out of Lupo’s hand and pressed his own hand over Lupo’s nose and mouth to prevent his screaming. His other arm went around Lupo’s neck, and Van heard the crack as his neck broke.

Merlin eased the body down and out of the way of the door. He let the computer finish its tasks while he dressed. He got the information, tucked it away safely in a storage pocket, picked up his umbrella, and left. Van barely saw Merlin’s hand move as a throat strike took out the guard by the bedroom door. 

He walked calmly down the stairs to the front door as Van said, “Hail a taxi when you exit. It will be British racing green and the Rome license plate will begin 5464.”

“Understood,” was murmured back. There was a final guard at the front door and Merlin used the umbrella to break his wrist before he could hit the keypad for an alert. The scarf around his collar became a garotte. Merlin left the house, smiled at the two guards playing cards in front of it and hailed his cab. He exchanged call signs with driver, just to be sure. 

The driver called him Mister Columbarius for the entire ride to the small private airport just outside the city. Once Merlin boarded the plane he went through the preflight checklist and took off.

“Galahad, tell them I’ll be landing in about four hours. Merlin out.”

***  
The cruise ship ruse hadn’t worked, and Eggsy was forced to head out in a fishing boat for Helsinki. They were boarded, but the fishermen had hidden him in a storage compartment. The searchers opened the door, but didn’t look thoroughly -- and certainly not up to see the panel Eggsy was concealed behind -- before they left the boat in peace. 

It was another two hours before they approached Helsinki docks and someone from the Swedish embassy was waiting to get him on a private flight to London. Eggsy smiled when he boarded the plane and saw Princess Tilde on the sofa.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eggsy has some ideas and does some analysis of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is human trafficking, prostitution, and drug dealing in this chapter. None of it is graphic, some is just mentioned, but I wanted to warn.

“Which Witch is on comms?” Eggsy asked.

“It’s Morgana.”

Van was surprised to hear a warm deep voice with a touch of Yorkshire still hovering around its edges.

“Glad to hear it. The data is wrong.”

There was a disturbance from the direction of the hangar and Merlin strode in still wearing his suit and sunglasses. “Someone get me my proper glasses.” He stared at Van for a moment, until the younger man stood up and let him sit at his console. Lady handed him his glasses, and he ran through a couple of tests. “Still in the air Lancelot?”

“Coming into Gatwick in just over an hour. We were delayed on the layover.” 

“Good to know.” He switched feeds. “And how was your layover Beaumains?”

“Princess Tilde says hello.” The view on the feed changed and suddenly Merlin saw Eggsy. 

“I wanted to say hello for myself Mister Merlin.”

“Nice to talk you, your highness, please give Eggsy his glasses back.”

There was a giggle, but the view changed back. “Sorry, Merlin.”

“No problem, Beaumains. So what were you saying to Morgana to make her frown?”

“The data’s wrong.”

Merlin said, “By definition, it can’t be. It’s data.”

“Then the analysis is off.”

Morgana’s voice came on the feed. “Which of my chooks do you think made a mistake?”

“All of them?” Eggsy said. “Look, this is showing that there are two major distribution points in Western Europe: London and Brussels. But that don’t make sense when you look at the rest of his distribution patterns. Everything’s done with a major hub going outward. Brussels makes sense for armaments, right. Nip over to France and steal some Exocets or nuclear material. Brussels itself is known for being able to make any kind o’ gun someone needs, so that’s the specialty items. We had those Turkish arms going out from there, too. So why the fuck do they need London?”

“Excellent question, Beaumains,” Merlin said. “I assume you have a theory?”

“Enough of one that I won’t be landing at Gatwick. The plane’s going in at London City. I think the pilot’s just going to let the stairs down and push me out, he’s that angry about it.”

“Well, his plane is right on the upper limit for landing there.”

“Tilde told him he shouldn’t have picked the Air Force if he didn’t want a challenge and then offered to relieve him of his commission.”

Merlin said, “I like that woman.”

Eggsy relayed the compliment before getting back to his analysis. “So here’s the thing. Wolves play into this, right?”

“Loyalty test from Lupo is our working theory.”  
“One of the translations from that party had a phrase about London’s only good for rest and relaxation.”

“Okay. I’ll need more than that Beaumains.”

“So, Dean, there was only one guy I ever seen him scared of. Called him the Pack Leader -- everyone did. He’s the one Dean went to if he needed something scarce or more upmarket than his usual bad hash and meth. Don’t know why I got dragged along to a meet, but Dean was shitting himself. An’ this Pack Leader pointed a gun at me and… that’s a story for another time.”

“I’ll want to hear it in detail,” Merlin said.

“But the point is, one of his lieutenants called him Wolfie, and what Wolfie, the Pack Leader specialized in was drugs and prossies.”

“Uppers?” Merlin asked.

Beaumains said, “Anything. He could get you specialized weed that was really good to the best X you’d ever tried. Uppers would be a doddle for him. But really, his main line was the girls. Boys, too, sometimes. But … yeah, he’d get immigrant girls, some younger ‘an I was and I was fourteen, and he made most of his money off their backs. The information I’ve just seen with shipments from London -- which came from your job -- matches up with delivery times in Dhaka, Cairo, Jakarta, even Russia for whatever it is that’s called ‘Dark Delight.’”

“And then there were the secondary deliveries going out from there. That shipment is supposed to leave tonight, but we don’t have a location.”

“There are still warehouses, look abandoned, but aren’t on the Isle of Dogs near the West India docks. You know, the places they never got around to making better.”

The Lady was already talking to the Met about a gangster called Wolfie and his primary hangouts. Vivienne had wandered to her area, and Morgana was nodding.

She said, “I think you’ve filled in the puzzle much better than my chooks did. I’ll get on them about it.”

“Well, they didn’t have the benefit of my education,” Eggsy said.

Lady slipped a note under Merlin’s eyes. He nodded and said, “Beaumains, there’ll be a motorcycle waiting when you land. You’re not to drive it, you’ve been awake for nearly twenty hours, just hang on tight. He’ll get you to the warehouse the Met peg as Wolfie’s, and he’ll be going in with you, too. The Met won’t raid, until you give the okay. Got that.”

“Yes, Merlin. Who’s my chauffeur?”

Merlin looked to his right. “I’m sending Galahad out now. If Lancelot lands in time, she may be backing you both up.”

“Thank you, Merlin. I’ll see if I can grab a quick nap. Just a mo’ can Galahad bring me a suit?”

“He can indeed. Merlin out.” He turned to Van. Take the private line to the shop, Lady’s already made arrangements for the motorcycle.”

“And the suit,” Lady added.

“Ask Arthur for a copy of his British passport. He’s travelling on his Swedish one right now, and that could cause problems if there’s a real Jobsworth at the airport. Now get going.”

“Yes, Merlin.”

***  
Van walked up the stairs to the Swedish Airforce plane and was greeted by a Princess who said, “I’ll just give this to Eggsy, then shall I.”

“Yes, your highness.”

Five minutes later, Eggsy was coming down the stairs in a Prince of Wales glen plaid suit. Van handed him an umbrella and a small leather bag. “Vivienne sent it.”

“Know what it is then. Thank you, Galahad.” They were on the bike and on the road in a matter of seconds.

They made it to the warehouse area and went on foot from there. The number the police had passed on, had no activity, but there was a barge parked at another of the warehouses and Eggsy informed Merlin that they were going to check it out.

The barge was first. Eggsy looked in and saw about forty women, mostly teens, in the hold. “I doubt that’s all of them.”

“Do you need the police?” said Merlin.

“Not yet, I don’t want them killing the girls if they’re raided. I’ve seen three so far with AKs. Wouldn’t take long to get rid of the evidence.”

Merlin said, “Take your time.”

Eggsy looked at Van, “Galahad, I need you to go to the street side, tell me how many there are from that end, both girls and wide boys.”

“Yes, Beaumains.”

“Merlin, final count on the boat is three targets all with automatic rifles. One’s down with their cargo, which means silent kill.”

Galahad’s voice came over the feed. “I have seven total in here. Three are off to one side around a table, no idea about weapons other than the handguns in their holsters. Three more are protecting the cargo. Beaumains is right, automatic rifles. Good news is that I don’t see any of them carrying a reload in a pocket. The other one is unconscious at my feet.”

“Excellent use of your watch, Galahad,” Merlin said.

“I might be able to take out the rifleman closest to me silently, but all hell’s going to break loose immediately afterward.”

Eggsy voice said, “Got it, Galahad. The three on the boat are down. Just the one dead, and I’ve convinced the young ladies to keep quiet until we can let all of them go.” 

“Need a hand?” Lancelot came over the headsets. “Galahad I’m behind you about ten feet.”

Galahad said, “Head around to the water side. Beaumains, I think you two can get to the ones at the table and get the rifleman closest to the door. It’s the middle rifleman we’ll need to worry about most.”

He heard Eggsy say, “Good to see you, Lancelot, then, give us a tick Galahad.”

“Will do.”

The next thing he heard was Merlin’s voice in his ear. “Lancelot will give you the go to take out your man. Ignore Beaumains. He’s the distraction.”

“Got it, Merlin.”

Eggsy strode into the warehouse swinging his umbrella. “Not a very big pack for a wolf, I would have thought.” The two goons stood up drawing their weapons, while their leader remained seated. Van noticed that all three of the women’s guards had turned to face Eggsy.

“Do I know you?” the leader said.

“Wolfie, I’m hurt.” Beaumains was speaking in perfect received pronunciation, much to Galahad’s shock. “You offered me a job once. Mind you, I was much younger.”

“You was that kid with Dean. I hear he’s inside these days.”

Galahad hoped that the smile Beaumains produced was never directed toward him. “He is. I put him there.”

“Taken over his patch, have you?”

“Not yet. I thought I might take you up on your job offer. Surely you need someone… presentable.” He looked at the guards with contempt. 

While they were distracted, Lancelot said, “Now,” and managed to shoot sleeper darts into the guard nearest her and the middle one. Van took out the one nearest him with a stun blast and watched as Eggsy flipped his umbrella open to prevent being hit and took out the two armed goons. 

“Merlin, tell the Met it’s safe, and that I regret there’s one dead.”

“Will do, Beaumains.”

“So you think you’re going to take over my patch? The Italian Wolf will…”

“He’s dead.” Eggsy leaned forward. “The Met are minutes away, so you’ll be joining Dean in jail. I hear it’s nice in minimum security. But if you don’t tell me where every single girl is that you’ve got on the roster right now, I’ll make certain you end up in a hellhole with everyone knowing that you,” his voice went down to a whisper, “liked young boys.”

The man swallowed hard. “My straight ledgers are at my house. These are only for the Wolf project.”

“Thank you. Does that include your drug connections?” 

“Um, no, but those are at my office, didn’t do to have everything in one place.”

“An admirable security plan,” Eggsy said blandly.

The police came in and Lancelot took over, speaking to the Inspector in charge. Beaumains joined her with the information he’d extracted from Wolfie, and they and Galahad walked out less than five minutes later.

“There’s a helicopter waiting for you on top of the Financial Securities building at Canary Wharf. It will bring you back to Headquarters for your debriefings and check-ups.”

“Yes, Merlin,” Eggsy said, “And don’t forget to have yourself checked.”

“I thought we could all go in together.”

***  
When they came up from the hangar, Merlin heard them before he saw them. Lancelot and Galahad looked happy, but Eggsy looked like he’d been through a mangle. Impeccably dressed, carrying himself well, but his eyes said he was wrecked.

He saw Merlin and smiled sweetly, walking right up to him. He said, “To hell with Arthur’s rule,” and kissed Merlin passionately.

They broke and not one person was looking in their direction. 

Vivienne said, “I’ll have a word with my team. The last five minutes of footage from this room didn’t record for some reason.”

Morgana came up to them and said, “You’d have been welcome in my department Eggsy.”

The Lady said, “You make him happy lad.”

Roxy said, “‘Bout time. I mean not all the time, but…”

Merlin said, “I understand.”

Van nodded. “Thank you for taking a job you shouldn’t have had to, Merlin. I’ve learned a lot.”

“I’ve talked to Arthur about keeping you out of the pool for male honey traps.”

“I… thank you for that, but I think I need to speak to Arthur myself. And I’ll be telling him that I’ll take any job assigned to me.”

Merlin nodded at him.

Eggsy said, “Tell the doctors we’ll be there in a minute, please.”

“Sure.”

He turned to Merlin and said, “There were 120 girls total and he was going to stuff them in the hull of that barge and unload them onto ships in the Estuary. If we’d stayed poor, that could have been our Daisy some day.”

“No, _mo chridhe_ , because she has a brother who would have done anything to prevent it.” He twined his fingers with Eggsy’s. “Come on, let’s go see the doctors.”


	5. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some discussion between Merlin and Eggsy.

They lay twined together in Merlin’s bed at headquarters. Merlin had called Arthur beforehand and told him that since they were both off-duty, he didn’t think their sleeping arrangements were Kingsman’s business. Arthur concurred.

“Just ask the question,” Eggsy said. “Like ripping off a plaster.”

“Which question is that?”

“I don’t know, but I know you have one.”

Merlin kissed his temple. “I’ll start with a request. Never wear colored contacts again, it was a shock.”

“Tilde shouldn’t have taken my glasses. You’d never have seen it.”

“Mind you, you’re beautiful, _mo chridhe_ , no matter the color of your eyes.”

Eggsy smiled against his shoulder. “You know, Roxy thinks you’re the handsomest man at Kingsman. She’s right, of course.”

“Flattery is not sufficient distraction. I know the right question, now. Will you tell me the story of how you knew that man?”

Eggsy stilled and said, “Story for story?”

“Yes, _mo chridhe_.”

“Dean, he’d done something terrible. Don’t know what, never wanted to know, but he was terrified when he went to meet that guy. Always assumed it was money, I guess. Don’t know why he brought me along to the meet up…” He kissed Merlin’s chest and sat up. “Shit. I didn’t know, but I do now.” 

Merlin sat up and pulled Eggsy to his chest. “When you said that he liked young boys I wondered?”

“Nah, but I think that’s what I was brought for -- as a favor, maybe. Anyway, Dean was giving him a song and dance. I wasn’t paying attention, but Wolfie was furious and pulled a gun, pointed it straight in my face. I told him Dean would prolly thank him if he shot me, since he thought I was a pain in the ass and not his son, anyway.”

“I see.”

Eggsy turned and kissed him sweetly. “No, you don’t because the man laughed. Told Dean I had more balls than he did, which got me a right beating before we got back to the flat. He told me that if I ever wanted to get away from Dean, he’d give me a job, no questions, because he didn’t have many who’d stand up to him the way I did. Anyway, he gave Dean another week to pay off whatever, and gave him some of the good E to sell, too, which was the other reason Dean was there.”

Merlin had gone still behind him.

“And to save you asking, yes, Dean had me running drugs for him sometimes. Gave me E when I was fourteen just for a laugh, he said, and I tried cocaine out of his stash because it sounded good -- which, I was fifteen and stupid, never again. Cops only ever picked me up for hash, and even as a kid I wasn’t stupid enough to touch heroin or meth.”

“You don’t still…?”

“Wouldn’t mind doing mandy with a lover, but I know that’s not you. But no, nothing else tempts me.” Eggsy kissed him. “Should I say something awful like ‘you’re my drug now’?”

“Please don’t.” Merlin began to laugh behind him. “That man held a gun on you and your stepfather might have had you, what? traded to him for a debt.”

“No, don’t think I was meant to be a permanent gift. Mum would’ve noticed me gone and all. More like, ‘here, try my stepson’s virgin mouth’ maybe arse. Don’t know.” Eggsy shrugged and felt Merlin’s arms tighten around him.

“I’m so sorry you went through all that, _mo chridhe_. I love the man you are, but I would have spared you those times.”

“Wouldn’t be the man I am without them. Dean’s in jail. Wolfie’s in jail. And maybe we saved some girls lives tonight.”

Merlin nodded, and they began to snuggle back under the covers. “What’s your question?”

Eggsy was silent.

“You haven’t fallen asleep on me? I had plans.”

Eggsy laughed. “No, it’s just I have two, and I don’t know which one I want answered more.”

“Ask them both. You answered two of mine.”

“All right, first, and this ain’t the question, I’m right you made it to the final two?”

“Yes. I was nominated for Percival.”

Eggsy looked at him. “Why did you…”

“Fail?”

“Yeah, I mean, you’re Merlin, if anyone bothered to notice you’re second to Arthur, not subordinate to the table.”

“I am subordinate to the table. It’s just that the majority of you were trained by me, so I’m seen as higher than I am.”

“Don’t thinks so, bruv, but sure. So?”

Merlin whispered in his ear, “I wouldn’t shoot my dog.”

Eggsy turned to kiss him. “I knew it.”

“What’s the second question?”

“Harry said he was going to straighten things out when he got back. Now that I know lots of the candidates get offers for other jobs, do you know what he was thinking of for me?”

 

“I could just answer that with a ‘yes’ and be done.” He pressed Eggsy back into the bed with a deep kiss.

“But I know you wouldn’t leave me unsatisfied,” Eggsy said as he stroked Merlin’s back.

“He’d noted how well you analyzed things, that you scored brilliantly well on all your weapons and in hand combat. I’d noticed, too. We were going to start you with the Lady’s unit. If you did as well as we thought you would, we were going to move you to Vivienne’s, more on the research than the development side. If you did well there, then you’d have worked under Morgana for awhile. During all of this, you’d be my second at training.”

“That’s big. I mean, that’s…”

“He wanted you to be the next Merlin. And you were the first candidate I’d seen in years who might have been able to do it.”

Eggsy pulled him close and kissed him. “I don’t think I could ever…”

“No one does until they’re doing it. But the Three Witches had already signed off on the plan. They watch the candidates, too, so that we can make those job offers.”

“And they’d have been okay with me.”

Merlin started to nibble down his neck. “Let’s not talk.”

Eggsy gasped and said, “Let’s not.”


End file.
